Charlo Vikings fight past Horsemen

PLAINS – The Horsemen hung tough for awhile but, in the end, the Landers Smith-led Charlo Vikings were just a little too much for the young Plains football team.

Charlo defeated Plains 42-6 in the Western C conference opener for both teams in Plains Saturday night. Sitting at 0-1 in Western C play, the Horsemen will travel to Seeley Lake Friday for a game with the 1-0 Seeley-Swan Blackhawks.

Second-year Plains coach Eddie Fultz was impressed with how his guys played early against powerful Charlo, which was ranked No. 3 in the state in the preseason power poll. The game was back-and-forth early on and the Horsemen tied it up at 6-6 early in the second quarter when Treydon Brouillette reached paydirt on a four-yard touchdown run.

"We had a few chances to shake things up early, and it could have made the game go differently," Fultz said. "But Charlo managed to make a few plays in the second quarter and kind of took control after that. We had some opportunities, they just did not quite work out for us."

Surrounded by a solid supporting cast, Smith did most of the damage on offense at quarterback for Charlo all night, besides being a tackling machine from his linebacker position on the other side of the ball.

Smith started the scoring for the Vikings with a three-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and then hit Garett Vaughan with a 35-yard pass for another score midway through the second period before scoring on a 34-yard run later on in the second and then adding the two-point conversion to make it 28-8 Charlo.

With less than two minutes to go in the first half, Charlo's Bridger Foust intercepted a pass and sprinted 24 yards in for the touchdown to put the Vikings firmly in control. Smith completed a two-point conversion pass to Roper Edwards to give Charlo a 36-8 lead at halftime.

Smith threw a 33-yard scoring strike to Clayton Hill in the third quarter to complete game scoring.

Fultz gave credit where credit was due – mainly to Smith. "He is certainly going to play football at the next level," Fultz said. "I guess the Griz and the Cats are talking with him and the NAIA schools in the state have already offered him scholarships."

As impressive as Smith was on offense, Fultz was even more impressed with how the Charlo senior played on defense. "If you told me he had 25 tackles I would not be surprised," he said. "It seemed like he was in on every play."

Fultz is glad to have seen the last of Smith, and looks forward to seeing how his Horsemen respond in Seeley this week. The Blackhawks defeated the Darby Tigers 27-6 in Darby last week.

"Seeley looks like a program on the rise, they are much improved from last year," he said. "We have to respect them – we know how hard it is to play in Darby after we had a really tough game there last year – and Seeley handled them last week."

Fultz is optimistic though, and sees the next several weeks as being key to the season.

"Our goals are still in front of us, this is a good chance for us to get back on track," he said. "There is a lot riding on these next couple weeks. After Seeley we play Arlee, Flint Creek and Mission, and we should know a lot more about ourselves after those games."